Valuev vs. Haye

Had the fight turned out for Valuev, I believe disaster for heavyweight division would continue as now the belts are held by the three big men (but) with small hearts (you know who I am talking about.) How disastrous? Quite severe I must say. For several years that I have never want to watch any heavy weight title matches, the last fight I recall my eagerness to watch is Lennox Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko (a good fight but with not too impressive result.)

Talking about Valuev, the biggest man in boxing history (according to someone at Sky Sport commenting the fight), he has nothing, really, to be considered an attractive fighter. He is slow, he is clumsy, he throws too few punches and most importantly, he obviously does not have heart; I believe his heart is even smaller than that of Klischko brothers. For a man as big as he is, fans naturally expect him to fight more aggressively, to crush the opponent to death. That never happened however. David Haye is much much smaller that Valuev, he is so small so that one might think he is in a different weight class, Haye did more last night and obtained the title however. This is not his normal fight, Haye said after the fight. And this can be understood surely as one needs special strategy against special (and monstrous) opponent, Valuev is no ordinary monster.

I am very pleased with Haye’s victory and hope he will bring colors to the division.

แปลกแต่จริงกับร้านกาแฟไทย

• ในประเทศไทยร้านกาแฟสดมีทุกหัวถนน (ในซอยบ้านผม มีทุกห้าสิบเมตร) แต่หาร้านที่รสชาติดีได้แค่ 15% (หรือน้อยกว่านั้น) ของร้านทั้งหมด
• ร้านที่รสชาติไม่ดี ไม่ใช่แย่ธรรมดา แต่ต้องบอกว่า “แย่มาก”
• แล้วมันแย่มากแค่ไหน? ต้องขอโทษแล้วบอกตรงๆ ว่ากินน้ำเปล่าอร่อยกว่า (ไม่ได้ประชด)
• ถ้าอยากกินกาแฟ ทำไงดีถึงจะไม่เีสียเงิน หรือเสียความรู้สึกฟรีๆ? กาแฟโบราณที่เป็นรสเข็น มีเปอร์เซ็นต์ความอร่อยอยู่ที่ 75% (วัดจากประสบการณ์ตัวเอง) พูดในแง่ความเสี่ยงที่จะเจอร้านไม่อร่อย ถือว่าน้อยกว่ากาแฟสด 5 เท่า ส่วนความเสี่ยงต่อความเสียหายทางเศรษกิจ ก็ห่างกันหลายเท่า เพราะกาแฟโบราณนี่แก้วละไม่เกิน 20 บาท (ส่วนมากจะ 15 บาทเท่านั้น)
• มีร้านที่จะไม่ไปเหยียบอีกแล้วหรือไม่? มี ร้่าน Coffee World ที่เห็นตามห้างทั่วไป รสชาติต่ำกว่ามาตรฐานแบบกรรมการหัวเสียแน่นอน ถ้าไม่มีทางเลือก หากาแฟ KFC หรือ 7-Eleven กินจะปลอดภัยต่อสุขภาพจิตมากกว่า (ถ้าไม่อยากกิน Starbucks)
• มีร้านกาแฟสดน่านั่งแถวซอยลาดพร้าว 71 หรือไม่? ยังไม่มีร้านไหนดีพอจะให้แนะนำได้ แต่ถ้าอยากเอาบรรยากาศ ร้าน “หอมกรุ่น” ด้านขวามือหลังจากเข้าซอยมา 500 เมตร ก็เป็นตัวเลือกที่รับได้ บรรยากาศดี ส่วนกาแฟ พอถูไถ

The Lost Symbol

I love Dan Brown for his devotion in researching materials before fantasizing his novels. The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons are among the very best I have ever read for this reason. The Lost Symbol is no different in this regard. Differences are in the way he fantasized the materials however.

(As I feel telling even some details of this flying novel would effectively spoil it, I will not mention anything that can hint readers about how the plot is laid down. Sorry about that.)

The Lost Symbol is a story about interpretation of ancient mysteries hidden by those who fathered America, the most powerful empire ever known by humanity. The same fortunate Robert Langdon is the key character in unlocking this mystery. I like the overall storyline, the quests are also brilliantly designed in Dan Brown style and standard. However, what I feel awkward about it are some events that are not described (or at least not in a convincing way) in the story (I won’t tell which, or I destroy your enjoyment!) Besides that the ending is also very predictable as I feel the desire of the demon (yes, I mean the bad guy) is practically impossible (if Dan Brown chose to make it possible in this novel, the category of this book would shift from Thrillers to Fantasy, for god’s sake…) And because he did not choose to do so, the ending just turns out to be (for me) a little too ‘plain’. Anyway the facts the author researched and brilliantly depicted in the book are invaluable and really really enjoyable. A few flaws I mentioned are not enough to drop this novel from A class.

This may not be the best but definitely a good one that is worth your time.

Mayweather vs. Marquez, the bigger wins.

People seem to believe that Mayweather won the fight so easily because he was bigger and heavier that night. Actually, Mayweather did not look bigger than Marquez at all, at least they are equally tall; thus, saying that Mayweather won because of his bigger mass seems unfair. Then what exactly made victory for Mayweather? I believe physical strength and athletic gift played the most important part here. For the fact that both boxed with the same style and Mayweather happened to be the faster and the more accurate, it becomes more than enough for Mayweather to secure the pound for pound title from Marquez.

The most obvious round to my eyes which showed that Mayweather was much much more talented than Marquez is round 5. In that round, Mayweather threw punched after Marquez but those punches happened to land before those of Marquez (which missed), these situations were repeated several times in this round and Marquez could do nothing but desperately stepped back to get away from being more severely damaged. It was not that Marquez could possible be more prepared, it was only that both were not born equal. An excellent counter puncher was just outpunched by an even better counter puncher, sad but true.

I believe Mayweather could make a KO had he took some more risks, however at the way it was, Mayweather undisputedly won and already created anticipation among sport fans regarding his next opponent, potentially Manny Pacquiao.

At this stage, I believe even Pacman cannot swallow this genius black dot.

Blackberry Storm 9500/9530

I bought this phone as a gift for my sister. It arrived today and I had a chance to play with it considerably. These are my initial findings regarding the phone.

• Build quality seems ok, solid enough for the price, does not look cheap. I think the robustness is comparable to that of Nokia N70. The unit is quite heavy but this is in a good way as I like the way it feels in my hand. The battery cover is made of metal which is great to look and touch.
• I don’t like its gross finish as it gets dirty easily. BTW I really like that Teflon coating of HTC Hero, classy yet durable.
• The phone starts very slowly, taking approximately 2 minutes. I understand that booting a smartphone is like booting a computer, but my trusted N70 does it faster, for the latest phone like Storm, can’t RIM make it better? (Okay.., this is truely my fault, Storm starts (initiates) slowly only the first time you turn it on, when battery is removed and when installing new softwares/themes; otherwise it is up very quickly, no slower than 5 seconds!)
• I don’t understand why it is so difficult to install/uninstall softwares/themes. For software, it is more understandable, but even installing themes require phone restarting is not quite logical; again, my old N70 does not require this.
• The clickable screen needs some getting used to, especially when selecting an item which I first found it very difficult to do, I got used to it only after a while of playing however.
• My unit’s left corner of the screen is not as equally clickable as the other corners. It can be click functionally but it is less springy than the other corners. At first I found this as a defect but after doing some research, many users experienced similar symptom (thus this is in fact normal, too bad for a phone of this price) and (luckily) there is an easy workaround for this. i.e.: inserting a piece of paper between the phone and battery. The workaround did an excellent job as now all corners click equally.
• The screen is bright and vibrant, with excellent resolution; lovely!
• The phone operates smoothly, I experienced only minor slow down which I consider insignificant.
• A 3.5mm socket is there! The sound quality of the unit is excellent.
• Call quality is good, I can communicate clearly with normal sound volume.

Mayweather vs. Marquez

After watching 3 episodes of HBO’s 24/7, I feel convinced that the fight will definitely be a good (also a close and enjoyable) one. Mayweather and Marquez are actually in a similar weight class, they both made fame in 130-135 pounds divisions, which means they are likely to fight in their most natural styles. Mayweather came up to 147 pounds to fight Oscar De La Hoya (and he succeeded on that), and this time Marquez is stepping up to dethrone Mayweather.

In De La Hoya Fight, Mayweather did not show much aggressiveness the fans wanted, this is understandable as Oscar was much bigger than he was, defensive was inevitably a better option to secure victory. However, this time, as Marquez is physically in the same size as he is, to maintain pound-for-pound and super star status, Mayweather must do something more exciting than peeking and countering as he did in Oscar fight.

As I said in my earlier post, I believe Marquez is a capable boxer, a very intelligent fighter with aggressive boxing style. He is also an excellent counter puncher. In his latest fight, he spent over 8 rounds to learn how to stop the raging ‘baby bull’ Juan Diaz, he finally stopped him in round 9 with his excellent uppercut shots he invented in round 8. However, Mayweather is no less a boxer than Marquez, he is at least as intelligent. He even said in an episode of 24/7 that he never watch any tape nor plan any fight as he always does it at the moment he’s fighting. If this statement (or bragging) is 80% accurate, he is at least 3 times smarter than Marquez.

Regarding physical strength, though Marquez is strong, Mayweather is at least as strong. In HBO’s 24/7 of Mayweather vs. De La Hoya, he pointed that Oscar always looked exhausted in later rounds of fights and reminds the world that he was stronger as he never showed fatigue. I believe he is still the same even after a few years break (boxing retirement).

Final words: Marquez absorbed 8 rounds of damage to figure out the way to defeat Juan Diaz while Mayweather spent 12 rounds to outbox Oscar and succeeded without taking substantial damage. Marquez is now 36 while Mayweather is enjoying his prime at 32. It is likely that Mayweather will close the show of the Mexican living legend and enjoy fighting with Shane Mosley or Manny Pacquiao in his next (big) fight.

Scotland

Walking: Florence

Florence is one of the most attractive cities of Italy (the others are Rome and Venice, considering their uniqueness.) I had a chance to go there a few months ago and I was quite impressed. Florence is not a big city, you can walk across it and a day of walking should cover all attractions. One of the must-see things in Florence is, of course, the great Duomo, it’s a dome-shaped cathedral which you can go up to the top through its ancient stair way (which is over 600 year old as its construction was completed in 1436.) At the top of it, the whole Florence lies beneath. Florence Cathedral is the fourth largest cathedral in Italy. Besides that I believe the other most impressive attraction is the hill called ‘Piazzale Michaelangiolo’, the famous David sculpture is standing there. At Piazzale Michaelangiolo, you get the best view of Florence, even better than seeing it from the top of Duomo since here, the Duomo itself is included. Other than these two I think the overall architectures of Florence is pleasingly beautiful enough to just walk and enjoy its beauty and tasty Italian coffee/ice cream.

From Piazzale Michaelangiolo

As I said, one full day should cover Florence, but if you have another day, Pisa is worth visiting. It is just over half an hour from Florence by train. Pisa is a small city with that famous leaning tower. From Pisa train station, you can walk to the leaning tower within half an hour, detailed map is available at tourist center located near the train station. There you enjoy a meal, pay a visit to the top of the tower and ride back to Florence while appreciating scenery of Tuscany. (Actually you can spend a night at Pisa but if you plan to go to another city, Florence is the better choice as its train station offers more routes.)

Florence is not a cold city, temperature in late spring or summer might rise to 35-40 degree. I believe going in winter may be the best but I cannot be sure as I never do it myself.

Something about Bronica SQ-Ai

I, again, got this camera by accident. It was an impulse purchase as the price on the Bay was so tempting. After trying to use it I found that information about Bronica is not as widely available as some other popular brands; and that Bronica seems to me to be the brand with some myths (at least this model), maybe this is because of its not being as popular as Mamiya or Hasselblad counterparts. Anyway I did some research and also worked with my camera and finally got it worked, I decided to write this article to clarify some facts about this camera so that it will turn up in Google for those who are starting with this camera and looking for some sorts of information about it. As I’m not an expert myself, if I’m wrong, please correct me.

• SQ-Ai uses four LR44 batteries instead of one 6V battery used in SQ-A, this is because of its newer design which requires the battery compartment to be flatter.
• SQ-Ai does not have mechanical shutter at the speed of 1/500 second as SQ-A does. (Without battery installed or when battery dies, SQ-A will fire at 1/500 second regardless of the speed set on the camera body.)
• SQ-Ai has shutter speed as slow as 16 seconds, it also has the ‘B’ setting, unlike SQ-A which goes down to only 8 seconds and does not have ‘B’.
• SQ-Ai will not fire when the battery voltage is below 6V (when one of the four LR44 has lower voltage).
• SQ-Ai will not fire when lens or back is not properly attached, but will fire when no lens is attached at all.
• SQ-Ai will not fire when the mirror cocking crank is not completely turned; this is important as sometimes it seems complete already but actually it does not.
• SQ-Ai will not allow lens removal unless the shutter and mirror are in ‘cocked’ position (just turn that knob.)
• SQ-Ai’s mirror slap is very strong, to my feeling, it is obviously stronger than Mamiya 645 Super and suprisingly it is even stronger than that of RB67! Actually, I can feel the vibration through my hands while holding it.
• Shutter is the lens cannot be fired unless by the camera body (unlike RB67’s lens whose shutter is allowed to fired even when they’re not attached to the camera, Mamiya also recommends keeping the lens in ‘fired’ position for long time storage.)
• The standard focussing screen is bright, brighter than that of Mamiya RB67 Pro SD or Mamiya 645 series, and far better than Yashica Mat-124G.
• Its outer plastic shell seems more robust than that of Mamiya 645 Super/Pro/Pro TL.
• The outer shell of lenses of SQ system are made of plastic, I do prefer it to be metal but this exterior does match the camera body’s exterior.
• Camera back cannot be detached without fitting dark slide in, and dark slide cannot be removed when the back is not attached to the camera; however changing film does not requires back detachment, just open the back and remove the insert to install a roll of film. (I mention this because my camera does not come with dark slide and I found it impossible to remove the back, I tried to workaround by using RB67’s dark slide instead, the slide fitted but removing the back was still not possible.)
• Though this is an electronic camera, if it is not used for some period of time, the mechanical parts might malfunction. Mine acted as if it needed bettery charging by refusing to fire the shutter immediately after cocking it, I have to want 4-5 seconds before being able to fire next shot. However after several test firing, it came back to its normal state, no charging is ever required since.
• To my knowledge, the SCA adaptor connector (the port on the left of the back release button) has no cover. So it’s not missing when you don’t find it there, it never exists.

I will update this post when I find out more.

Good Equipment: Leicaflex SL

Leicaflex SL with 50mm Summicron

First of all, I am not a fan of Leica. But I have to admit that Leica is one of mysteries so many people including me want to explore. What creates such mystery? Price! Leica equipments are always on the expensive side. And I mean ‘equipments’, because it’s not only lenses and cameras but its everything including cases, hoods, caps, etc. Yes, the absolute way to increase product price is to create brand image, obviously Leica has succeeded. Anyway, Leicaflex SL is one of a few inexpensive Leicas everyone can find today.

Leicaflex SL is the second Leica SLR, succeeding the original Leicaflex, and is claimed to be one of the best Leica SLR (even SLR generally) ever made. I have to agree with this statement. It has its drawbacks but for me, none seems major. The biggest one is that the SL does not compatible with some lenses, none of these lenses are essential for me except the 24mm, but I don’t normally go that wide, thus this is negligible. It does not have hot shoe, again, I don’t use flash, thus this is also negligible. Regarding the plus side, I love its viewfinder, it’s big and bright even compared with pro-level cameras today. To my eyes, the Leicaflex SL’s finder is only 0.5 stop dimmer than that of Dynax 9, one of the brightest finder in the industry. This means it is brighter than most camera at that time; in my own comparison, the Pentax K series and Minolta SR-T series have 2.5 stops dimmer finder than that of Dynax 9 and Olympus OM-1 with its standard screen is also 2-2.5 stops dimmer.

Leicaflex SL has stepless shutter, this means any shutter speed can be set regardless the click stops (in-between clicks works!) Its build quality is comparable to a tank, it is said that it will work even after being dropped from a plane (one that was actually dropped from the plane is now displayed in a museum in Europe (sorry about that name), and this is far beyond any drop test standard.) It is reported to be highly reliable (sure!), mine never fails after a year of ownership and I don’t feel it will by regular usage. The metering system is spot type, the spot-metering area is its micro prism area and I like this as my normal use of this camera is portraiture. The camera uses 0.35V battery for the meter, but the ubiquitous 0.5V also fits. I have no problem about the exposure accuracy with the 0.5V battery after setting the ASA/ISO to about +0.3 stop. Leicaflex SL is one of my ‘Good Equipment’ and one of the best I have ever used.